The National Network For Fair Trade in India

Meet Our Agent For Change: Ms Suman

Ms Suman is a pioneer in the struggle to end child labor and trafficking in India. She has worked for more than 25 years for the liberation of child laborers and their empowerment. She believes Right to Food for all is a basic human right and to be free from hunger and malnourishment is the first step towards empowerment. She submitted a report in 2014 to CEDAW committee on Right to Food of Women in India. She lays stress on giving importance to gender aspects of food security. She believes women’s economic and social empowerment not only improves intra-household food distribution and health related matters but also improves the working of food and nutrition programmes. She also works extensively with migrant communities in Delhi for their socio-economic empowerment ensuring their rights are not violated.

Ms Suman envisages a dream of child friendly society free of child labour and exploitation. With the aimof socio-economic empowerment of communities, she providesproducer communities in parts of UP, Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar with sustainable alternative income generating opportunities through Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Fair Trade. She helps in the production and marketing of goods.She is the Vice-president of FIAN in India. She established one of its kind transit rehabilitation centers in Delhi in 1990 for released bonded and trafficked children, appreciated widely by ILO and UNICEF in 1995. She is a member of Fair Trade Forum-India and has been awarded Rotary Club’s prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship and Antigone Awards in 2005 and 2015 respectively.